Version 1 wins race for Sports Council IT project

31 Jul 2003

Dublin tech firm Version 1 has beaten off competition from 50 other companies to deploy an e-government initiative with the Irish Sports Council.

The Irish Sports Council, which has an annual budget of €28.5m to distribute to athletes and sporting organisations around the country, is implementing an IT programme designed to streamline its business and communications with its sporting audiences.

The deal involves four major IT projects including the development of an IS quality management system, an enterprise data model, a grant and performance management system and a record management system.

“Version 1 has also put in place an IT project management methodology which the organisation will apply both to these and to all future IT-related projects,” explained Matthew Kennedy of the Irish Sports Council. “We found most ‘off-the-shelf’ methodologies are overly complex and bureaucratic for a new organisation like the Sports Council, and Version 1 provided us with an approach based on best practice tailored to our needs.

“The Irish Sports Council has a budget of €28.5m, over 90pc of which is distributed in the form of grants or other financial aids to athletes, national governing bodies and other sporting organisations. It is critical for our effectiveness and governance to implement appropriate solutions to manage this part of our business and to allow us to cope with the volumes of documentation we receive as part of the grant application process,” Kennedy said.

“This implementation will help us manage the business more effectively, track the performance and effectiveness of our grants, as well as using the web to make us more accessible to our clients,” he concluded.